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HOTEL
Scenarios for the year ahead

2013

Puneet Chhatwal, Steigenbergers new CEO, shares his thoughts on the challenges in the year ahead Dorchester Collection CEO Chris Cowdray on leadership How will 2013 shape up for the key hotel markets worldwide? 30 exclusive country reports from Horwath HTL Special section: Spa 2020 Leading experts explore the next decade in the spa industry How is your company visualizing its future business landscape? Woody Wade on scenario planning in the hotel industry

This excerpt from the Hotel Yearbook 2013 is brought to you by:

WADE & COMPANY

Wade & Company is a Lausanne-based consultancy that helps senior managers in the hospitality industry better understand how their future business landscape could change, affecting their competitiveness and creating new opportunities and challenges. Its scenario planning workshops give management teams a creative yet structured approach for envisaging alternative ways their future operating environment could realistically unfold over the next few years, depending on how current uncertainties develop. With these eye-opening insights, Wade & Companys clients can maximize the flexibility of their strategic plans and be better prepared for whatever future dies arise. More info is at www.11changes.com.

Horwath HTL

Horwath Hotel, Tourism and Leisure consulting are the worlds number one hospitality consulting organisation, operating since 1915. Horwath HTL are the industry choice ; a global network offering complete solutions in markets both local and international. Through involvement in thousands of projects
TM

over many years, Horwath HTL have amassed extensive, in-depth knowledge and understanding of the needs of hotel & real estate companies and financial institutions. Horwath HTL are the worlds largest consulting organisation specialised in the hospitality industry, with 50 offices in 39 countries. They are recognised as the pre-eminent specialist in Hotels, Tourism and Leisure, providing solutions through a combination of international experience and expert local knowledge.

Hotel, Tourism and Leisure

Hsyndicate

With an exclusive focus on global hospitality and tourism, Hsyndicate.org (the Hospitality Syndicate) provides electronic news publication, syndication and distribution on behalf of some 750 organizations in the hospitality vertical. Hsyndicate helps its members to reach highly targeted audience-segments in the exploding new-media landscape within hospitality. With the central idea ONE Industry, ONE Network, Hsyndicate merges historically fragmented industry intelligence into a single online information and knowledge resource serving the information-needs of targeted audience-groups throughout the hospitality, travel & tourism industries serving professionals relying on Hsyndicates specific and context-relevant intelligence delivered to them when they need it and how they need it.

MARKETING ON THE WEB

Look, sweetie, they have the 17th available!

For many hotels, weddings are an impotant source of revenue. Yet the way they market weddings to the prospective bride and groom has not always caught up with the way young people shop in 2013: on the web (where else?) Ciara Crossan, an entrepreneur from Cork, Ireland, asked hereself, How could hotels reach out to this new breed of transactional web users and impact their wedding revenues? The result: her start-up company WeddingDates, a harbinger of other web-based services and apps being designed for the hotel industry in 2013.

Benjamin Franklin once famously said, In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. But unless you are a tax accountant or a funeral director, how do you grow your business in challenging economic times? Weddings are what I like to think of as a recession-proof life event. Even in times of economic struggle, people continue to tie the knot, albeit perhaps in a smaller, less lavish way. Idealistic young couples still want to show the world that they are in love and, with the increase in divorce rates, second time (even third time) weddings are increasing year on year. Civil partnerships are now firmly on the map and the rise of the pink pound when it comes to weddings has been well documented. A drop in corporate bookings due to the current economic circumstances has led hoteliers to look to weddings to supplement their C&B business. But in an increasingly competitive marketplace, how are hoteliers reaching out to newly engaged couples? And, more importantly, how are they converting these couples into wedding revenue on the books? User behavior online is changing as the web has moved from simply an information resource to a place where we transact daily. We purchase flights, book hotel bedroom accommodation, shop and pay bills online every day. According to the UK Internet Advertising Bureau, the hospitality & travel industry is a leading adopter of digital marketing, accounting for first six months of 2012. In the realm of weddings, a recent survey we conducted suggests that 90% of couples will go online and Google wedding-related terms before they ever set foot in the door of a hotel. Yes, they are researching online, but how about going further? We also know that over 60% of couples set a wedding date before they decide on a venue. How can hotels better leverage their digital marketing experience in bedroom bookings to grow their business in the niche and sometimes more complex wedding vertical?

WeddingDates is an Irish-based software company that has married the transactional nature of the web with the demands of the 21st century couple. We provide hotels with software that allows couples to check availability for their chosen wedding date online. This cleverly designed application makes it easier for couples to transact on hotel websites and to submit enquiries more easily via an interactive calendar tool. The enquiries that come via the calendar are for dates that the hotel has available to sell and thus are more qualified, more targeted, and more valuable leads. Our hotel customers are reaping the benefits. Conversion rates of 10% are not uncommon, and we give hotels the ability to track and measure the impact of the software very quickly and see the additional revenues hit the bottom line. For one 5-star hotel, our software generated 276 leads which led to

HOTELyearbook 2013

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10% of the entire digital advertising spend in the UK during the

MARKETING ON THE WEB

Look, sweetie, they have the 17th available!

cont.

30 converted wedding bookings and revenue of 900,000 in a single calendar year. While hotel websites have been thoroughly optimized for bedroom booking conversion, when a user goes to a weddings or events page on a hotel website, thats usually where the interactivity stops. Some photos, marketing text and maybe a download brochure link is what faces a bride (or groom!) when planning the happiest day of their life not exactly an inspiring start! Online enquiry forms have a tendency to be way too lengthy and generic. Many use the same form for meetings and conferences as they do weddings and events. (I dont know about you, but I have never been a delegate at a wedding!) Hotels need to realize that wedding bookers want to be communicated to in a different way than corporate bookers,

and tailor their websites accordingly. With increased choice in the marketplace, an alternative venue is only a click away. While you may have a stunning wedding property, we consistently hear back from brides who say the major influencer in their decision was the ease of communication with the venue, or the staff member that gave them the show around. For hotels where weddings are a key part of the revenue mix, even a slight uplift in the number of weddings per year can make a big difference. WeddingDates customers report a 20% increase in enquiries and an improvement in enquiry quality, when they install our software on their websites. And in economically-challenging times, a 20% uplift in revenues can have a major impact on keeping the wolf from the door.

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your tradition. our spirit.

s i n c e 1 8 9 6

M a j e s t i c a n d e l e g a n t, i n t h e c e n t r e o f s t. M o r i t z , at t h e h e a rt o f t h e s w i s s a l p s . this is where you find the Badrutts palace hotel. legendary, unique and distinctive! s i n c e 1 8 9 6 g u e s t w i s h e s h av e B e e n a n t i c i pat e d a n d f u l f i l l e d , h o w e v e r g r e at t h e y M a y h av e s e e M e d . w i t h u s y o u a r e t h e g u e s t a n d w a r M l y w e l c o M e d .

Badrutts palace hotel, via serlas 27, 7500 st. Moritz, switzerland, telephone: +41 (0)81 837 1000, fax: +41 (0)81 837 2999 reservations: +41 (0)81 837 1100, reservations@badruttspalace.com, www.badruttspalace.com

noblemandeluxe.com

Ms. rita hayworth & Mr. hans Badrutt (hotel archive)